Segway auctions close on Amazon
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Segway auctions close on Amazon
Segway auctions close on Amazon
Consumers pay big bucks for first three transporters
By Troy Wolverton
Three lucky consumers will be among the first to own a Segway Human Transporter, but they will pay a pretty price.
AUCTIONS FOR THREE of the devices closed on Amazon.com on Thursday night at $100,600, $104,100 and, after several last-minute bids, $160,000.
Bruce Waldack, an Internet millionaire and the founder of Thruport Technologies, won one of the HTs with the final bid of $100,600. Waldack, who collects vintage computers, sold DigitalNation, a Web hosting firm he founded, to Verio for $100 million in 1999.
Amazon and Segway representatives were not immediately available for comment.
The HT, formerly known by the code names Ginger and IT, is an electric-powered, self-balancing, two-wheeled device designed by renowned inventor Dean Kamen. Once it goes on sale to consumers in the fourth quarter of this year, the HT will cost around $3,000.
Segway placed the devices up for auction on Amazon last month to raise money for FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology), a nonprofit organization founded by Kamen. The organization says its mission is to inspire an appreciation of science and technology in children, their schools and communities.
Although the auctions are closed, it remains to be seen how many of the bids on the auctions were real. Unlike it does with other high-profile auctions, Amazon did not prescreen customers before they placed bids. Thus, anyone could place a bid, regardless of ability or intent to pay.
A significant number of bids appear to have been pranks. At least 10 bids were retracted from each of the auctions; the price of one of the HTs momentarily fell from more than $100,000 to less than $86,000 on Thursday after some customers retracted their bids.
Most bids were placed by customers who had no history of buying on Amazon
Consumers pay big bucks for first three transporters
By Troy Wolverton
Three lucky consumers will be among the first to own a Segway Human Transporter, but they will pay a pretty price.
AUCTIONS FOR THREE of the devices closed on Amazon.com on Thursday night at $100,600, $104,100 and, after several last-minute bids, $160,000.
Bruce Waldack, an Internet millionaire and the founder of Thruport Technologies, won one of the HTs with the final bid of $100,600. Waldack, who collects vintage computers, sold DigitalNation, a Web hosting firm he founded, to Verio for $100 million in 1999.
Amazon and Segway representatives were not immediately available for comment.
The HT, formerly known by the code names Ginger and IT, is an electric-powered, self-balancing, two-wheeled device designed by renowned inventor Dean Kamen. Once it goes on sale to consumers in the fourth quarter of this year, the HT will cost around $3,000.
Segway placed the devices up for auction on Amazon last month to raise money for FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology), a nonprofit organization founded by Kamen. The organization says its mission is to inspire an appreciation of science and technology in children, their schools and communities.
Although the auctions are closed, it remains to be seen how many of the bids on the auctions were real. Unlike it does with other high-profile auctions, Amazon did not prescreen customers before they placed bids. Thus, anyone could place a bid, regardless of ability or intent to pay.
A significant number of bids appear to have been pranks. At least 10 bids were retracted from each of the auctions; the price of one of the HTs momentarily fell from more than $100,000 to less than $86,000 on Thursday after some customers retracted their bids.
Most bids were placed by customers who had no history of buying on Amazon
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From: Manchester, NH
I have met Dean the inventor of the segway..he is a really nice person, and comes to eat at the resturant i work in all the time. This christmas me and my family were having dinner at one of the resturants across from the mall, he pulled up in his hummer and parked it across the street and drove the segway in...It is a really cool looking machine!
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